I am probably asking too much here because it is your livelyhood. Is there a diagram on how to properly wire a racecar? When it comes to electrical, I am not the greatest. I am getting tired of always doing it twice....

I am probably asking too much here because it is your livelyhood. Is there a diagram on how to properly wire a racecar? When it comes to electrical, I am not the greatest. I am getting tired of always doing it twice....

That's like asking a Cam company and a Crank company for their specs and then grinding your own Crank and Cam.

If I could sit around and draw up schematics all day and get paid for it. I wouldn't need to wire cars anymore. But I’m not about to indulge everything I have created, learned and have practiced, certainly not to give it away. Billy Glidden makes his living at racing: I make my living at wiring cars.

The problem is everyone is a so called electrician from chassis shops, nitrous companies to the do-it-yourselfer. Seems like anybody can wire a car, and maybe they can because wiring a car is thought to be second nature. But from everything I have seen and have answered many questions for, some things are better left off to a professional.

You don’t go to an Eye Doctor to have your teeth cleaned and you don’t go to the Dentist to have your eyes checked. They might advertise it, but would you really feel confident having them perform the exam?

Electronics in this day and age are moving faster then the Stock Market. If you don’t believe me buy a Computer today and it will be outdated tomorrow. The electronic age has arrived in the Racing industry and it isn’t going to get any less complicated in the future. I can’t stress how critical the electrical system is in a racecar today. It will literally make or break a racing program.Today’s electronics are much more sensitive and have to be installed properly to get everything out of them that they have to offer. Digital Ignitions are very different then Analog type Ignitions, an Analog type Ignition will survive with an inadequate ground. The ground on a Digital Ignition must be grounded adequately. It simply will not work properly with inadequate grounding methods. It isn’t like 10 or 15 years ago when you could put on a few wire nuts, scotch locks and butt connectors and be off and running. But you’d be surprised how much of this I see and how piss poor the program is because someone half assed the wiring. If a car is not properly laid out from the Battery Cables to the Data Acquisition System you better get a subscription to the Hair club for Men because your going pull your hair out trying to fix it.

I see many posts and I answer many questions where people feel they have a defective product because of the problems they are having. More times then not it ends up being an installation problem vs. a product issue. It’s real easy: If you don’t understand the instructions and are not comfortable with wiring. You need to seek out someone who does and can install the product with confidence. Don’t fumble through the installation, result to the instructions after the installation and then get on the net, ask a bunch of question and/or drag the manufactures name through the mud, because the product does not work properly, because someone half assed the installation and/or didn’t understand what they were doing when they installed it. The electrical system in any car toady is not second nature anymore. It is the key element that makes or breaks the program. Hire a professional to get it done right and be done with it.

I guess I should have been more clear on exactly what I was looking for. I can wire basic stuff. I'll figure it out thanks. I was looking for the best way to set up a power distribution panel to power all the electronics. I'll figure it out I always do. No need to reply, thanks. I have a tooth thats bothering me I need to go pull....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sparky

That's like asking a Cam company and a Crank company for their specs and then grinding your own Crank and Cam.

If I could sit around and draw up schematics all day and get paid for it. I wouldn't need to wire cars anymore. But Iím not about to indulge everything I have created, learned and have practiced, certainly not to give it away. Billy Glidden makes his living at racing: I make my living at wiring cars.

The problem is everyone is a so called electrician from chassis shops, nitrous companies to the do-it-yourselfer. Seems like anybody can wire a car, and maybe they can because wiring a car is thought to be second nature. But from everything I have seen and have answered many questions for, some things are better left off to a professional.

You donít go to an Eye Doctor to have your teeth cleaned and you donít go to the Dentist to have your eyes checked. They might advertise it, but would you really feel comfortable having them perform the exam?

Electronics in this day and age are moving faster then the Stock Market. If you donít believe me buy a Computer today and it will be outdated tomorrow. The electronic age has arrived in the Racing industry and it isnít going to get any less complicated in the future. I canít stress how critical the electrical system is in a racecar today. It will literally make or break a racing program.Todayís electronics are much more sensitive and have to be installed properly to get everything out of them that they have to offer. Digital Ignitions are very different then Analog type Ignitions, an Analog type Ignition will survive with an inadequate ground. The ground on a Digital Ignition must be grounded adequately. It simply will not work properly with inadequate grounding methods. It isnít like 10 or 15 years ago when you could put on a few wire nuts, scotch locks and butt connectors and be off and running. But youíd be surprised how much of this I see and how piss poor the program is because someone half assed the wiring. If a car is not properly laid out from the Battery Cables to the Data Acquisition System you better get a subscription to the Hair club for Men because your going pull your hair out trying to fix it.

I see many posts and I answer many questions where people feel they have a defective product because of the problems they are having. More times then not it ends up being an installation problem vs. a product issue. Itís real easy: If you donít understand the instructions and are not comfortable with wiring. You need to seek out someone who does and can install the product with confidence. Donít fumble through the installation, result to the instructions after the installation and then get on the net, ask a bunch of question and/or drag the manufactures name through the mud, because the product does not work properly, because someone half assed the installation and/or didnít understand what they were doing when they installed it. The electrical system in any car toady is not second nature anymore. It is the key element that makes or breaks the program. Hire a professional to get it done right and be done with it.

Sparky,
I was asking some basic electrical wiring questions. I put it in the electrical forum. I put it here if someone wanted to answer. If you did not want to answer the question, you did not have to. That is why I worded the question like I did, out of respect for your business. I thought these forums were here to help. I did not need a song and dance about how you don't do this, you don't do that. I was going to put it in General tech questions, I guess I should have. Sorry if I offended you.

Jeff, I didn’t mean to direct my reply towards your question and I apologize if it seemed that way. I didn’t mean to attack you personally.

I did however want to put it out there that the electrical systems are getting more and more complicated these days. If anyone is uncomfortable and/or unfamiliar with the wiring arena, then seek some professional help. This saves everyone involved a lot of headaches. Furthermore, the Manufactures are doing an awesome job of creating some really, really cool products. These products need to be installed properly. I see it all too often that someone on the internet will trash talk a company simply because they didn’t follow directions and/or were not strong enough electrically.

I also get really sensitive about Schematics for a couple of reasons. One reason is: I have spent a lot of time researching and developing circuits and schematics. It would have been really cool back in the beginning to have had someone to call and ask how to do a particular circuit. But there was no one to call. I had to figure it all out on my own. Some feel I should share this info and/or schematics. I feel if someone would cover my time that I have spent researching and developing these circuits and/or schematics, then I wouldn’t have a problem with it. Not quite the deal though, seems like everyone wants everything for free. So the racing world is becoming like the rest of the world of R&D. (R&D stands for: Rob someone else’s idea and Duplicate it on their own project and/or market it as their idea). Another reason is: I don’t feel it is fair to my customers who have paid good money to have a car wired, with schematics supplied, only to have someone ask if they can borrow the schematics to do their own car, especially when the guy borrowing the schematics calls me and asks me to explain the schematic to him. I have even had people call asking for schematics so that another guy who does wiring could wire their car for them. What the hell? If this guy does wiring, what the hell does he need with my schematics? Regardless, once they slipped with that information the phone call was over.

I don’t mind coming here and helping people out within reason. But I will not come here and indulge all of my processes and trade secrets, certainly not to give it away.

I should have started another post with this. I needed to vent, this has been bothering me for a while.

That's like asking a Cam company and a Crank company for their specs and then grinding your own Crank and Cam.

If I could sit around and draw up schematics all day and get paid for it. I wouldn't need to wire cars anymore. But I’m not about to indulge everything I have created, learned and have practiced, certainly not to give it away. Billy Glidden makes his living at racing: I make my living at wiring cars.

The problem is everyone is a so called electrician from chassis shops, nitrous companies to the do-it-yourselfer. Seems like anybody can wire a car, and maybe they can because wiring a car is thought to be second nature. But from everything I have seen and have answered many questions for, some things are better left off to a professional.

You don’t go to an Eye Doctor to have your teeth cleaned and you don’t go to the Dentist to have your eyes checked. They might advertise it, but would you really feel confident having them perform the exam?

Electronics in this day and age are moving faster then the Stock Market. If you don’t believe me buy a Computer today and it will be outdated tomorrow. The electronic age has arrived in the Racing industry and it isn’t going to get any less complicated in the future. I can’t stress how critical the electrical system is in a racecar today. It will literally make or break a racing program.Today’s electronics are much more sensitive and have to be installed properly to get everything out of them that they have to offer. Digital Ignitions are very different then Analog type Ignitions, an Analog type Ignition will survive with an inadequate ground. The ground on a Digital Ignition must be grounded adequately. It simply will not work properly with inadequate grounding methods. It isn’t like 10 or 15 years ago when you could put on a few wire nuts, scotch locks and butt connectors and be off and running. But you’d be surprised how much of this I see and how piss poor the program is because someone half assed the wiring. If a car is not properly laid out from the Battery Cables to the Data Acquisition System you better get a subscription to the Hair club for Men because your going pull your hair out trying to fix it.

I see many posts and I answer many questions where people feel they have a defective product because of the problems they are having. More times then not it ends up being an installation problem vs. a product issue. It’s real easy: If you don’t understand the instructions and are not comfortable with wiring. You need to seek out someone who does and can install the product with confidence. Don’t fumble through the installation, result to the instructions after the installation and then get on the net, ask a bunch of question and/or drag the manufactures name through the mud, because the product does not work properly, because someone half assed the installation and/or didn’t understand what they were doing when they installed it. The electrical system in any car toady is not second nature anymore. It is the key element that makes or breaks the program. Hire a professional to get it done right and be done with it.

Sparky

I was searching the net for a simple race car wiring diagram and this forum was one of the links that came up.

After reading this response above I was prompted to sign up and say what a rude, belligerent response this is. The bloke was asking for some simple help and you decide to pay out on him, hang your head in shame.

I was searching the net for a simple race car wiring diagram and this forum was one of the links that came up.

After reading this response above I was prompted to sign up and say what a rude, belligerent response this is. The bloke was asking for some simple help and you decide to pay out on him, hang your head in shame.

And yes, you can see I am an old hand at forum posting.

Shame on you!

i read what sparky was saying and i understand 100&#37; where is coming from-

i understand because i have a business- i will help to a certain extent but their is a limit-

help for help- not get help and he needs something u turn your back-

a bit harsh-for every piece of info i have learnt i will alwys give back something to the person who educated me or taught me how to do it-

i believe in that-others dont thats why the world does not run 100% because others thing they know more then others instead of helping one an other--

I can see where Big Trev is coming from, and just because Sparky is no longer with us, doesn't change the fact that he wrote this.

Instead of Sparky giving some simple advice, on how to make his (ProGSX's) install go more smoothly, Sparky decided to tounge lash and tell him how (without personally knowing ProGSX), that he just simply couldn't pull this off. If you read between the lines, ye you can pull some advice from it, but nothing that common sense wouldn't already dictate.

While there is a lot of respect on this forum for Sparky and what he was able to do, by taking an otherwise over looked or under appreciated aspect of a race car and making a business out of it, he could have still put up some simple pointers and even a few examples that I'm sure wouldn't effect his bottom line.

I'm in the same boat, I also work with automotive electrical on a daily basis, sometimes even nightly too. But I till give helpful pointers, when asked, or point people in the right direction, and don't beleive it has ever taken away from my bottom line, pretty sure it has only helped, because once people see just what it takes to do it right, they realize just how much work and education is needed to do it right and will usually pay someone else who does know what they are doing, in the end.